International construction company AMEC has recently published its sustainability report for 2012, in which it asserts that its health and safety performance is well above industry norms.
The report, which outlines AMEC’s commitment to long-term sustainable business, emphasises the company’s focus on safety, which saw a mixed performance last year. There was a 24-per-cent improvement in the company’s all-injury frequency rate, but although it achieved its best-ever lost-time incident frequency rate, 12 people were hurt seriously enough to keep them away from work.
The statistics meant that the company failed to meet its goal of zero harm, while its total recordable case frequency rate for 2012 rose by 3 per cent compared with the previous year.
The report admits that AMEC has much more work to do to realise its goal of delivering year-on-year improvement in safety performance and of reaching zero lost-time incidents as part of its ‘beyond zero’ approach.
As far as safety in design is concerned, health and safety core standards have been revised to incorporate engineering standards. The company reports that 1414 people attended its training programme on engineering safety through the project lifecycle last year.
Frances Fay, AMEC’s head of sustainability, said “never compromising on safety” was one of the company’s fundamental values.
Last year, AMEC was found guilty of breaching s3(1) of the HSWA 1974 in relation to a fatal incident on the Spinningfields construction project in Manchester, in 2004. It was fined a total of £300,000, plus £333,860 in costs.
Its 2012 sustainability report can be downloaded at: www.amec.com/aboutus/sustainability
